in bloom (cont.)

I have another flower pattern! It's really quite cute, I like it alot. It is pretty big around, it is bigger than the palm of my hand...much bigger than the rosette or flower I made for Ingrid. I used the mohair yarn again, this time the ivory and red together. Since this is a really soft yarn and the petals are so big and long (two layers of treble crochet or double treble crochet...that's really tall!) they ended up being a bit floppy and the flower did not have much shape. So, I stitched the big petals in the back together about halfway up the petal, so that it retained more shape and kind of "bowl-ish". Overall it looks good, I think this is my favorite flower pattern so far. I think there is room for alot of play with this one.

When I was done making the flower, I stitched the pin to the back and added the leather button in the center. I think it gives it a little more of a preppy feel, but I think they go well together. The reason I used the leather button is to tie it together with the leather accents on the handles of this purse, a tote from American Eagle.

A closeup of the flower attached to the purse.

I am sending this off to Ryan's baby sis, Jenny, today. She has been going through a little rough patch, I don't really know what is going on, I have just seen what she posts on her Facebook page. And since the rosette I made his mom was such a hit, I thought I would send her this to lift her spirits and put a smile on her face. Ryan and Jenny also have similar music tastes so I included a couple cd's: Ben Folds (who we saw in concert a couple weeks ago), Missy Higgins (also saw her), Augustana and the new Starfield.

p.s. that fabric used as a background with the flower in the first picture is a kind of silk organza.....to be used in a project I am starting tonight...I think it will be very pretty!

Critter hunting

Something is eating my plants. I planted a few new plants in my window boxes because the summer ones were all browning since they are now out of season. I just got a few pansies, and a couple other winter/fall type plants. Nothing too fancy or expensive, but still pretty and colorful. But something is eating them! grrrrr.
I came home one day last week and noticed some of my flowers and leaves were missing. Just chewed down to the nubs of the little stems. And now, some ENTIRE plants are gone! What the heck! And it's always when I am gone. I dare the squirrel or whatever it is to do it while I am home and let me catch it red-handed. Because then I will know what type of cage I need to rig up to catch the plant-murderer and it can answer to Ryan's snakes. Yes, the death penalty.
You mess with my plants, you mess with me. No joke.
Although....maybe its locusts or something? Any ideas?

Flowers bloom

Well I finished another gift this weekend, and also started up some other projects.


This is what the rosette I made for Deanna (Ryan's mom) looked like, only hers was red. I had a single pearl button in the center. This gift however was intended for my Aunt K. (Kristin, my dad's sister.) Aunt K is very artistic, and quite dramatic (as we Williams' are. =p) But she is truly unique and I love her! So, I had to give hers a little more flair than just a pearl button. Viola!


They stand out a little bit more in this picture, but they are really close to the color of the yarn. Swarovski crystals! It's nice because they match, but catch the light here and there to make it a little more dramatic. It took me longer to add the crystals than to crochet the flower! It was quite tedious. But I hope she likes it. I sent if off to her today, so she should be getting it in the next couple of days.
Happy Birthday Aunt Kristin! (October 3oth) Yeah, I know I'm late. =(

Happy Birthday Ingrid!

My baby sis turned 18 back in October. A while ago, I started a sort of tradition when my cousin Meryl turned 16, by marking that special bday with the same number of presents. Some would be really nice, others kind of silly but representing some part of that person. Like for Meryl, the most sensitive and emotional of all of us, the girl always finds some reason to end up crying. Well, one of her presents was a box of kleenex, which when we opened it proceeded to cry. HAHA! I love you Meryl!
Well, this year was Inky's turn. Let me tell you a little bit about Ingrid. She's the youngest of us five. She is a senior in high school and currently applying to universities with hopes set on attending the Coast Guard Academy where our cousin Alyssa is a senior and graduating in May! Ingrid is extremely athletic, and smart and the girl has a quick mouth. This can lead to some pretty heated discussions, especially since we are all opinionated, strong people in my family, but oftentimes some quite witty and funny comebacks. She's a tough cookie. She's pretty classic and I love her.
So....some of the things I got her (if I can remember them all)
1. A black tote from American Eagle.
2. I have a pen fetish and love studying and taking notes with lots of different color pens. (keeps me from getting bored) so I got her a pack of nicely colored pens to help with her studies.
3. Her nickname is "Pink", I don't really remember how that came about about, maybe a spring-off of Inky? (which I think came from the younger kids not being able to say Ingrid. Anyways, I got her a really pretty pink nailpolish because she has really long fingernails...and its pink!
4. Pure Nessalove.


It is a flower I made, and the first ever without a pattern. I just kinda made it up as I went along. It is a little twist on the flower that is used in the center of the motif of the Bliss blanket, I just added more layers of petals that got bigger with each round. I used an ivory and a purple (the same color of Lisa's flower) mohair yarn together to give it a bit of a variegated effect. Then, I placed a pretty mother-of-pearl button in the center of it, which looks really nice because I think it ties it all together and snazzes it up a bit. I also stitched a pin to the back of it so she can pin it wherever she wants....And it looks super cute on #1!
5. She is 18, and this being an election year she can vote! So I got her a "Vote for Pink!" shirt from Victoria's Secret.
6. Along with that I got her some cute panties, one being a boy-short with "Vote Pink" on the behind. =)
7. A Touch of Pink - Lacoste
8. "The Pink Tiger Album". It's a one-of-a-kind....really. Ingrid LOVES tigers. And since she is also the Pink, I came up with this album. basically, any song with "Tiger" or "pink" in the title or artist name. Examples include: Eye of the Tiger - Survivor, So What - Pink, Pink - Aerosmith, Tiger - ABBA. You get it.
And the album cover was a pretty pink and white tiger print drawn/colored by moi.
9. She is also learning how to drive and getting her license this year. We all got our licenses our senior year. So, I got her this. The pink one of course!
10. She is a huge Longhorn fan, so I got her some longhorn yoga sweatpants.
11. She is a coffee drinker (even though dad isn't a huge fan of us drinking coffee =/). You know those thermoses from Starbucks where you can decorate it yourself? I got one of those and a tiger print fabric from Joann's. Now she has a tiger thermos. Rawr!!
12. She got a iPod touch for her bday from our uncle, and I got her a slick skin.
13. A cool Ethos water bottle which I am sure Dad is a much bigger fan of. =)
Hmmmmm....I can't remember the other things. grrrr, I am still not totally used to blogging and my sporadic entries don't help my getting into the habit of taking pictures for chronicling such things. Anyways, she loved everything. She opened up her package last night. That was kind of a funny story. I don't get a good signal in my apartment since I am way in the back and kind of hidden by a slope since I am in a building overlooking a gulch creek/ green belt. So, I was sitting bundled up in a blanket (cuz it's cold this weekend!) in my car waiting for her to call me when she was going to open it (we were waiting for certain family members to be there since they wanted to watch her open it)...which ended up being around 1-ish a.m. my time, but it was totally worth it. Happy Birthday Ingrid! I love you!

Excited

My sewing class is tonight....I CANNOT wait! I will finally get to learn how to use my machine, and then I can get started on some projects. I already made a list! And, I get to leave work a little early to make it to the class....woohoo!

Out with the old, In with the new

I got a new iPod....one of the new "nanochromatics".

My old iPod decided it wanted to die this week. It didn't want to upload songs anymore, saying there was not enough memory space on it for the songs I wanted to add to it. Even when I downsized the number of songs I wanted to upload to it (1 playlist ~12 songs) and I KNEW there was enough space on it. So, I decided it would be good idea to restore it to the original factory settings. I mean, that's what it says to do in iTunes, "if experiencing problems with iPod, restore factory settings". So, I blanked out all the memory. And then tried to upload 12 songs. Still not enough room. So, I was left with a blank iPod. Yes. I was thinking I would wait and see if I would get one for Christmas, but I was already going crazy not being able to listen to music in the lab [not everyone in our lab likes radio music, so we can't play the radio. Thus, my lab is iPod nation. Everyone has their iPods in and on...kinda impersonal. =( ] So, I got a new one yesterday. It's the purple one in their new color series. I loved all the colors, I stood at the campus computer store for at least 5 minutes just trying to decide which color I wanted. But, I got purple because I am afterall, Dad's sugarplum. =) I love it. It has twice the memory, which is all I need for dinking around the lab and the occasional run. Which was ANOTHER reason I could not wait til Christmas. I am trying to get back into working out, and I CANNOT go running without music. I get bored way too quickly and I need a nice beat to keep me moving. Look how skinny it is!!

It is less than half the thickness of my previous one. And, the my new 'pod plays movies. Pretty slick for such a little thing. One other really spiffy feature, say you want it to shuffle your songs and a song comes on you don't want want to listen to, just give it a little shake and it will move on to another song. How cool is that? ( I didn't even know this when I bought it, a lab mate just pointed that out to me right now) And it was only $150, that's almost half of what I paid for my first nano. crazy.

While I was at the computer store, I also got a mouse for my laptop. I have had my laptop for almost 4 years, and I have just been using the touch-pad on it. Yikes....What was I thinking? That $21 for the mouse will be the best spent $21 this year. It's so much faster and easier to use the mouse. I don't know how i went so long without it.

Briana and David got their wedding proofs. Their photos are gorgeous, and she just looks freaking amazing.

I got some new books too. I love Amazon. Even with shipping, you pay less than half of what you would at Barnes and Noble. And I know they will give me alot of ideas for presents. =)
Here are two that I have received so far. The first is Amy Butler's In Stitches. She also has a line of really pretty, colorful fabrics. But this book has some really cute ideas and patterns for decor and personal items. The particular page I have opened to is a really pretty patchwork duvet cover. Looking at all the things in my books so far....there is no way I am going to pay 100+ dollars for things like duvet covers and bedsets at the store. I am going to make that stuff, and it can all be so much prettier than what you get at the department stores.


This second one is another in the series of I have of last minute knitted and patchwork gifts. This one is fabric gifts: hand sew, machine sew and no-sew projects. What I love too is that these books show you some really unique and pretty ways to wrap your presents.


The page I have opened to is one I am sure I will be using alot. Especially since I have been starting to get alot of requests for my flowers! And I just don't quite have the time to crochet a whole bunch of them. This is a really pretty variation, bias blooms. And looking at the pattern, I am already thinking of ways I might be able to change up this pattern or do different things with them. Aren't they pretty? This particular project is hand-sew.

Send Ingrid her gift.....Check

I sent Ingrid her gift today. It is going to take a week to get back to Cali because the box was kind of big. And though I would have liked her to get it sooner than that, there is no way I was going to pay $25 for shipping. Yowzers. And I don't know if she reads my blog, so I am not going to post any pictures before she gets it. So yeah, it will get there about a month after her real birthday, so its more like a birth-month. yesss. I am so glad I sent it off though, it has just been hanging over my head and making me feel really guilty and like a bad older sister.
Now this weekend I can focus on other things I need to make: a little something for my aunt, something for another very special lady in my life, and something for Ryan's little sister, Jenny. I am going to be busy!
And I am counting down the days until my sewing class on Thursday. I can't wait to get started.
And I wish my books would come in already! There is something I want to make my sister for her birthday, which is Monday, and it will also be late. grrrr. what can you do?
Happy Weekend everyone!
Hopefully I'll have some good updates come Monday.

I love my Kitty

Tesia was trying to get involved in gift wrapping. She liked the crunchy, crinkly feel of the tissue paper and promptly proceeded to make herself a little bed with it. I LOVE this cat. She has a newfound fascination with water. When I flush the toilet, she runs up to it, places her front paws on the seat and watches as the water swirls down and away. You can see her little head moving in small circles as she follows the water around and around down. I just flush it for her to watch sometimes. AND, this weekend she jumped up on my bathroom countertop when I turned on the sink faucet and she started to play with the water there. First she was trying to smell it, but when she did that, she would get water in her nose and would end up sneezing it out. She did that about, uh, 15 times until she realized she probably shouldn't do that. Then she started to bite at the water. When that didn't work, she would bat at it with her paw, but then she didn't like it when it got wet and she would shake it off everywhere. Finally, the girl thought it would be a good idea to drink the water, and she did. Her whole learning process though....cracked me up.
And, I have never known a cat to get witching hours like she does (and she doesn't even need catnip....yikes). Sometimes she just goes beserk. Its like my very own "jekyl and hyde" cat. I had a box with some little styrofoam blocks for packing and all of sudden, as if a switch was flipped, she goes crazy. She was tearing all the stuff up, and she was making all these funny noises. She also contorts her body a little bit while she is running around on her rampage. And I'll be sitting on the couch and call her name, and she'll cry and sprint off to my room. And then she'll come running back out, and run laps around the couch. She's nuts. Everyday is like an adventure with her.
Tesia is funny because she is affectionate, but its all on her terms. She'll come to you when she wants to. But when she does she is so sweet. I love how she follows me around everywhere, and she is always talking to me, especially when I am in the kitchen (hmmm wonder why that is?). When I am on the couch crocheting or knitting, she climbs on the back of the couch or armrest right behind me so the my neck and head are touching her. Whenever I move, she'll make a little cooing noise. And sometimes she'll wake up and be all lovey-dovey and rub up against me and give me kisses. I love her. I'd be so lonely at home without her!

My new baby

I am really late in posting this....for one, I had loaned out my camera and when I got it back it just took me a while to download the pictures off of it. Secondly, I had tried posting a while ago, but as I was about to publish the post, something weird happened and it all got deleted. I just didn't have the energy to re-write/re-do the whole thing. Furthermore, I feel kind of silly just posting a picture of my sewing machine, when I haven't even started using it yet. It seems a bit anti-climactic, just to have this really expensive sewing machine, that have been waiting for weeks to arrive (maybe to due hurricane Ike complications?) and just have it sitting on my table. But, I know that people want to at least see it, and I am enrolled in the introductory class on Nov. 13th, that was the earliest class being held at a time I could actually attend and I will have to leave work a little bit early to go (basically how to use my machine and get it all setup etc.) Well....(drumroll) here it is.

I really like the sewing table accessory that I decided to get along with it, I think it will help alot with having a nice work area directly around the machine. I have my rotary cutter, and scissors and "self-healing" cutting mat, but I still need to pick up a few things. I was planning on doing this after my class since they will probably have recommendations for me of what basic tools I need to have. I do know that I need to get one of those seam-rippers? I think that is what they are called....but I am sure I will be using that one quite often. I am just itching to get started on something. I have some vintage flannel material circa 70's? from my grandmother's sewing stash. It's got a cool paisley print, that I think will make some nice pj pants for Ryan. I'm thinking that will be my first project....something easy to keep me from getting discouraged and frustrated. But I am already starting to plan out what's next after that....this year is definitely going to be a "make-it" Christmas because 1) I just don't have the money to BUY everyone presents, and 2) something made personally for you is much better than something you buy at the mall (at least in most cases, and pretty sparkley things are definitely an exception I can think of right off the bat =P). Plus, a girlfriend of mine who I've known since I was about four is pregnant and due in February, and so I was going to make her a simple little baby quilt and knit a cute baby bonnet (they live in Denver so it's pretty cold). So, that's the plan for now, let's hope it is doable. And the never-ending Bliss Blanket project, I am 20% done with that. Yikes.
I made a little something for my sister, Ingrid, as a part of her big special birthday package. I will post a picture(s) later since I have not sent it to her yet. Also, Halloween was Deanna's (Ryan's mom) birthday, and since he went home for the weekend, I made her a rose brooch. I wanted to give her something for her birthday since she has always sent him home with gifts for me at Christmas, but this was also a tactical maneuver on my part. He was in his best friend's wedding in the city, about an hour away from his parents, and he thought he was going to be too busy all weekend to go home to see his family. This was just crazy to me...how can you be in the same state as your family, even an hour away, and not go see them? Especially considering the last time he saw them was last Christmas. Their family dynamic is very different from my family's, but I gave him a reason to HAVE to go home...to give his mom her birthday present from me. And he is glad that he did go. But back to her flower....it is very similar to Lisa's, except it is red, and I added a pearl bead to the center of it to dress it up a little bit. My camera was dead so I wasn't able to take a picture (doh!) but he said that she absolutely loved it. His sister's were also jealous and said they wanted one, and they couldn't believe I have been doing this only for a few months.
Apparently, I have quite a few things to start in mind, and they are all for other people. I am keeping an eye out for something I would like to make for myself. But I will be sending a couple things out the door here this week, so hopefully (fingers crossed) I will have some more things to post about soon.